1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a digital image reproducing apparatus, and more particularly to an image reproducing apparatus with an ability to detect and report problems occurring in connection with an image forming and reproducing process.
2. Related Art
In a computer system comprising multiple computer terminals connected via a network to peripheral equipment, some problem generally occurs in the peripheral equipment shared among the computer terminals. In such a case, jobs requested by the computer terminals may not be executed. To deal with such inconvenience, a system for reporting the reason for the problem and the current memory contents at the time of occurrence of the problem to the computer terminals of is known. For example, JPA 2001-67247 discloses a technique for reporting occurrence of problem to the users by providing a Web page containing information about the problems having occurred in the peripheral equipment.
Meanwhile, a multi-function image reproducing machine furnished with different kinds of imaging functions, such as a photocopy function, a printer function, a facsimile function, and a scanner function, in one system is put to practical use under a computer network environment. When problem occurs in such a multi-function image reproducing machine, the essence of the problem has to be reported to the users and/or the service center to promptly restore operation of the machine from the problem.
However, in the above-described computer system disclosed in JPA 2001-67427, the user cannot learn of the information about the problem unless the user voluntarily accesses the Web page. The user has to check the Web page regularly to confirm whether the peripheral equipment is in good working order, which is troublesome.
In addition, with the above-described computer system, the reason for problem and the current memory contents of the peripheral equipment are provided to the user, and the peripheral equipment receives an instruction for restoring the interrupted process having been executing in the equipment from the user through the computer terminal. Unlike in the above-described computer system, different stages of problems occur in a multi-function image reproducing machine, some problems being corrected by user's action, and some requiring specialized maintenance and repairing techniques. To this end, with the multi-function type image reproducing machine, occurrence of problem has to be reported to an appropriate person depending on the degree of problem.
From these circumstances, a technique for reporting occurrence of problem and its essence to an appropriate person at appropriate timing when problem occurs in an image forming and reproducing process is desired.